Devoted to our people and their stories. From the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Click on each photo to get to know our community.

Randy

If you had to give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

"You know, we live in such precarious times. The thing is – to relish interaction. Talk to people. Don’t text-message them, talk to them. Listen to people. That’s a problem we generally have, all of us at some point. That’s the core of success- the key to making things happen that we want to happen. Talk to people. "

2016

RZ

What is your biggest challenge in making school work?

"I’ve been taking classes at BRCC for more than two years. I’m responsible for my family, I’m a single father and I have a son, and I’m also working at the same time, and I’m part of many clubs at the college. English is my 5th language, I’ve been in the United States for more than two years, and I am still adding more to my understanding of the language. The systems in the school are different, but I think I’m doing a lot better than before."

2016

Malachi

Are you the first person in your family to go to college? What’s that like?

"Really not. I have cousin who was in college on my mom’s side of the family. He was attending college last year in the fall. But he was the victim of murder. He was attending a party and was a victim of a shooting. What really has gotten me to where I am today is on his behalf, because he was the only one in my family that I know personally who had gone to college… and after he died, I talked to my uncle and the rest of the family, and I dedicate this to him. My personal goal is to get my Associates, graduate from here and join the military. He is my influence, because I really did look up to him, we grew up together, wrestled together, fought together, but at the same time, it was all love. It was all family."

2016

Sarah

Why did doing HOfBRCC feel like a challenge?

"It’s kind of hard to just tell your feelings to a stranger. Even though I love the concept of HONY, it’s hard when it’s you, speaking your own feelings, instead of you reading someone else’s stories. But those stories are important to tell. So I guess it’s a good thing to do. It’s just hard to do."

So you did a hard thing!

"Yes, I did! Nerve wracking and hard."

2016

Javin

What does a celebration look like at your house?

"For Thanksgiving, most of my family are all vegetarians, so our step-mom, she makes a vegetarian turkey. She’ll usually make two for Thanksgiving. We also have an aunt who comes from North Carolina and she’s not vegetarian, so she buys a ham and shares that with us too. We eat around 2PM, and after that we usually play board games, like Monopoly and Uno. Then the little kids, my siblings, usually want to watch a movie or cartoons after that. Mostly that’s what we do."

2016

Julia

What scares you most about your future?

“I guess what scares me the most about my future is not knowing where I will end up. We are all working towards an intangible goal that we dream of fulfilling but we don’t know if we are actually going to reach it… and that is terrifying.”

2016

Hailey

What is your biggest wish in life?

"My biggest wish would be to be completely happy. I want to absolutely love my career as a social worker or a counselor, even if the pay isn't the best. I want to look forward to going to work each and every day. I hope that when I have kids they will know how much I will love them and be there for them through whatever curveballs life might throw. I hope to never get a divorce so my kids don't have to stress about which parent to side with or whose house to go to for the holidays. My wish in life is to be completely happy with every aspect of my life."

2016

Melissa

Who has influenced you most in your life and why?

"I think that’s probably my grandmother. She was born in 1925, and grew up in the 30’s and 40’s, a time when women didn’t have a lot of choices. And yet she made choices; she chose to work outside the home despite the fact that it was not a popular choice at the time, and she was promoted often. She became the administrator at a hospital, which was extraordinary. And despite working outside the home, she had five children. She was an intelligent and formidable woman. She spoke four languages fluently. She was well respected in the community. She fought cancer three times. And I miss her. She died this past year, and I miss her so much."

2016

Jennifer

What do meals look like at your house?

"Meals at my house are very informal. My husband is the cook, we’ve been married almost 25 years, and I’ve probably cooked 4 meals since we’ve been married. He’s a wanna-be chef in retirement, and so I let him get lots of practice. So he cooks a nice meal in our kitchen, we get our food, and then we head to the den where we watch the news, a comedy show, start a movie. That’s our connecting time after we’ve been working 10 or 12 hours a day."

2016

Jessica

Are you the first person to go to college in your family? What's that like?

"Yes, I'm the first person in my family to go to college. It's an honor but it's also a bit overwhelming. I don't know what college is like firsthand. Everything comes from my instincts. How I study, learn, and take notes. And being the first person to go to college, you have a lot of high expectations to meet. Overall, I'm just happy that I'm going through this milestone in not only my life, but my family's life as well. I'm leading by example to my younger siblings to follow their dreams. And I'm making my mother proud by going to college so I can become someone in life. If it wasn't for my family's support, I don't know where I'd be."

2016

Brent

What do you bring to school with you every day?

"Every day I always bring my bookbag, and my phone, my laptop, and all my school supplies to make sure I’m ready to go."

Do you ever forget your technology?

" I never forget my technology <laughter> I always bring my phone, just in case I need help and I need to call somebody. Normally I don’t bring my Ipad, but if I do bring it, I’ll use that when I don’t have classes. But I always bring my phone. Just in case."

2016

Blake

What scares you most about your future?

"What scares me most is that I will get through culinary school and earn my degree, and will have a basic skill set, but no imagination when it comes to food. No intuition about what my guests will want."

2016

Dalton

What’s your biggest weakness?

"I believe my biggest weakness is the fact that I am too nice, and it’s lead to some problems, where I have been too nice to other people and it’s come back to bite me in the, well, rear. I’ve been in situations where I was trying not to interrupt, and the people in charge were getting after me because I didn’t speak up. All I was doing was trying not to interrupt their time, and whatnot. I also don’t speak up sometimes if I think it might upset somebody, and it’s led to some discussions where I might have something to say, and it just doesn’t come out, because I don’t want to interrupt."

2016

Matt

If you had to give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

"No matter whether you’re in college or high school, whether you’re old or young, never stop learning. Learning is probably one of the most powerful things you can do because it doesn’t just make you a more culturally aware person. It enables you to think about things and make decisions that you otherwise would not have made, or even been able to make. You can look at things that might save you money, might save you time, prevent you from getting sick. Something as simple as taking a Chemistry class can help you understand what’s in your food. Taking an economics class can teach you why the companies you buy from do the things they do. And maybe could help you see through the things thrown at you every day by the media, by Facebook, by entertainment and Hollywood. Maybe, just maybe, you might be able to find something that’s real. And that’s the power of learning. Just learn. Just figure it out."

2016

Ellyn

What do you like to do with your free time?

"I like to garden in my free time. I like to grow plants from seeds, to see them grow and start producing, and I like to harvest everything. Then I eat what I can eat fresh. Then I preserve what I need to preserve so when it starts getting cold I can pull everything up for the spring, and I can hibernate the garden for the whole winter. My family did the same when I was growing up, and I’ve been doing this for 25 years."

2016

Stephen

What’s your goal in life, going forward?

"My goal is to spread God’s word, and to get everyone to understand who he is, and why Jesus is important in my life, and why he came to save all of us."

2016

Tonya

What do you bring to school every day?

"Every day when I come to school and I turn into Blue Ridge, I think of it as a privilege."

"This campus is very unique because even though it’s small, we have such a diverse population of students. When I come to campus, each day, every week, whether it be international students, people of different ages, races, ethnicities, people of different backgrounds, folks that are working and coming back in, folks with disabilities, whatever it may be in terms of diversity, just being a part of this campus you feel, you learn, you become that diversity yourself."

"The perspective that I bring is I bring an open heart, an open mind, free of judgment to the campus. My overall goal here at the campus is not just to gain an education, but to gain an experience that I can take with me into my career to touch other people’s lives."

2016

Samuel

What is something others may not be aware of about you or your culture?

"A lot of my relatives, some of the previous generations around my grandparents, are really racist. I don’t really like that about them. It’s hard to go see them, and hear them say things that are prejudiced about other people, like black people especially. That’s how they grew up, and it’s part of my culture, and where I came from, I guess, but I’m different from them."

2016

BRCC

B

"Are you ready for a break from school?”

"My shirt answers the question!"

2016

BRCC

Deb

If you had to give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

"Don’t be afraid. Take that chance. I used to be frightened of making mistakes and looking stupid. But I’m less afraid of screwing up than I used to be. I turn 60 next year. And I think I finally understand that in my life so far, choices that felt at the time like huge failures turned out to be the foundation that supports the parts of my life that I treasure the most. So mistakes, failures? They’re OK with me. I’ll build something better right on top of them."

2016

Salar

What’s your biggest goal?

"My biggest goal is to get a degree in a medical field and to try to help people as much as I can because this is my passion from when I was a kid. I love to help people , and I worked in humanitarian organizations before I came from my country, Kurdistan, in the United States."

2016

Lucie

What’s one thing you would change about your heritage, family or culture?

"My culture is very rich, and I love my family, and I have a great heritage. However, I don’t think early marriage should exist any more. In the Congo, we raise our girls by telling them to be good in marriage. At 16 already, you are pressured. You have to get married. And once someone gets there, you’ll get married, even though you are not ready, you are not matured yet. You will get married because that’s the culture. Those are the expectations our society has made for a woman. It’s marriage or nothing; they don’t see you elsewhere apart from marriage."

2016

qepsendpic@brcc.edu

Kenneth

What excites you about your future?

"I’m excited about many things, because I can either pursue a career in music, or in law enforcement, or I can do both. I can do what I enjoy – making music, or playing it - or I can do good, and help people out in the community that need it by going into law enforcement."

2016

Roman

What are the aspects of the culture you grew up in that you’d like to change?

"I moved here from a rural area when I was 10 years old. The area I grew up in was very conservative. I was a little too young to understand what everyone was thinking, but they were pretty unaccepting to a lot of cultural diversity, which is sometimes the vibe I get here when I’m around some of the more conservative folks. In a sense I can understand this, because obviously some people are denying the change that is coming upon us, even when you follow the reasons that America was founded, which was to welcome all sorts of people. Some people who have lived here a long time think that some of the other cultures that have come to the Valley shouldn’t be here. In that sense, the high school I went to is pretty split up, and can be very judgmental towards different things. It might not even be about race- it can even be about your hobbies and the kind of culture that you come from. I grew up in a skateboarding culture, and I was shunned away from a lot of the friends I first made when I moved here, because of the stereotypes and notions made about you before people even get to know you."

2016

Pamyla

How do you see your future unfolding in a global economy?

"This is an interesting question, because technology is changing really fast. Most of us here in at the college have grown up with computers, but I didn’t see one until 1984. And now I’m grading papers online, and I am so interested to see if my job will even exist in 15 to 20 years. Because really, I could Skype with all of you, and I could edit your papers online. Maybe that would be the same, and maybe it wouldn’t. I’ve been thinking a lot about these changes. Writing itself is changing a lot. We struggle in our field with traditional and new writing. This is the cutting edge, and that edge is moving really fast."

2016

Monica

What are some of the challenges you are trying to overcome?

"I’m still really trying to overcome life. I moved here four years ago. I wound up getting my first apartment, losing my job, losing my apartment, and went through that whole ordeal. At one point I was in my car for about two weeks. Then I got a pretty decent job so I could get my own apartment again. And two years later, life just messed up again, and I was homeless again. But my roommate was actually the one who hired me for a job, she was my manager. We became really good friends. So now I help her out with her kids. And going to school to get my social work degree, I hope will stabilize my life even more."

2016

MG

Are you the first person to go to college in your family? What's that like?

"I am the second person in my family to go to college and it is very stressful. My older sister is about to graduate from EMU and has done very well in her classes all four years. My first year of college I went to EMU well but I did not do as well as she did. I did not really like the campus and did not feel like I fit in. My parents were very hard on me since my sister always got straight A's and I would come home with C's they would always compare me to her and how I should be getting A's as well. There was a point where I decided to just quit, so I skipped class didn't do homework and would miss the test. Once my first year of college was over my parents were very upset with me because I was not allowed to go back to EMU, I was actually happy for this because I did not like the school, I didn't like how my sister also went there and they would compare me to her since we went to the same school. My second year of college I came to Blue Ridge. My parents do not understand why I am doing so much better here, but they are happy that I am doing better."

2016

Miriam

If you could give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

"Be nice. Be respectful. It’s especially important in light of world events right now. It doesn’t cost you anything to be nice. Care about the people; don’t forget to see the people, especially when you’re listening to the news, because there are human beings suffering. Be nice, but more importantly, be respectful."

2016

Jessica

What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?

"Oddly, it was a grading activity that I finished up. My art history students have to write journals, and they have to do five entries which means they need to go to five cultural events, four of which need to be visual art related. This is my favorite assignment to grade. Because if they follow the directions, everyone does really well on it. And because the journal entries are about their experience at some art related event, when they’re writing about it, they’re much more invested in it. They generally write very insightful things; some are very funny, even if they didn’t care for what they went to see. Since it’s a little more informal than a paper, they can inject their personality a little bit more. This comes at the end of the semester, when everyone’s kind of burned out, and it’s refreshing and invigorating to read them. Some of the students aren’t really all that interested in art anyway, but they find out that, well, going to galleries is kind of fun, and they took their family. One of my students just got remarried, and his family included two step daughters. So all four of them went to museums and galleries, and it turned into this family bonding experience. It’s really uplifting to read these kinds of stories at the end of the school year."

2016

McKenzie

What’s your biggest goal in life?

"My biggest goal is to become a forensic technician. I really enjoy the criminal justice program at BRCC and it has inspired me to further my education."

2016

Don

What’s the best thing that happened to you this week – and is it connected with what you like to do with your free time?

"Well, what I like to do with my free time is my brand new hobby which is bicycling. I was introduced to it this summer by a very dear friend, and I didn’t think I would like it. But I thoroughly enjoy just biking all over the Shenandoah Valley. I like to go on 25 mile trips, because of the solitude, the beauty of the valley. It gives me good exercise, and it also exercises my mind and soul. And my favorite thing that I’ve done this week that’s been wonderful is that I cycled my first 50 mile trip, or what we would call in cycling terms, a half-century. I biked from Weyers Cave, up and over the top of Afton Mountain and back. It was an incredible experience, a beautiful day, and my soul was filled to the very brim. That’s why I love cycling, and I love what I achieved this week."

2016

Cody

What excites you the most about your future?

"What excites me the most is the idea of obtaining an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice here at Blue Ridge, along with a certification in law enforcement where I can take my education and apply it to the field I want to go into. The reason I chose law enforcement to better the community, I want to go out there and make a community we live in for future generations to come."

2016

Charity

What’s the most heroic thing you’ve ever done?

"I used to work in a nursing home in Staunton, and a woman was being abused by one of the people there. I actually saw this happen, and she was my boss- the woman who was abusing the resident. I turned it in and was fired by my boss, because they didn’t want me to be able to testify against her with State when they came in. So then I had to go through the whole process with State in making sure that the resident was taken care of, even though I wasn’t there anymore. And I had to turn in my own sister, because my own sister was working at the nursing home. She did not want to report it, because my boss was one of her very good friends."

Does this have an impact on what you’re doing here and now?

"Oh, yes… I figure if people are going to cover stuff up, I’m going to make sure I can be the one to protect whomever I can. I mean, even at the cost of my own personal self. Did I know I was going to get fired if I turned in my boss? Yes. I did it anyway. Because it’s just the right thing to do."

2016

Holly

What’s your biggest goal at Blue Ridge Community College?

"Six years ago my son became a Type 1 diabetic when he was 9, and it really changed how my family and I live. And so I wanted to go into nursing so I can teach other parents and work with other children about it so they know that during the suffering and the pain, there is someone there to listen. I want to be an educator about diabetes."